Halimah Yacob

Halimah Yacob

BIODATA : 

Halimah binti Yacob was born on 23 August 1954. She is a Singaporean politician who is the current President of Singapore. Halimah Yacob is of paternal Tamil Muslim and maternal Malay descent. Her father was a Tamil Muslim watchman who died due to a heart attack when she was eight years old, leaving her and four siblings to be brought up by her mother. Her family was in poverty at time of her father's death, and she helped her mother to sell Nasi Padang outside the former Singapore Polytechnic (now Bestway Building) along Prince Edward Road. She was educated at Singapore Chinese Girls' School and Tanjong Katong Girls' School, before going on to the University of Singapore where she completed an LLB (Hons) degree in 1978. In 1981, she was called to the Singapore Bar. In 2001, she completed an LLM degree at the National University of Singapore, and was conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from NUS on 7 July 2016. Halimah is married to Mohammed Abdullah Alhabshee, a Malay of Arab descent, and has five children. Halimah is a Muslim. 

HISTORY : 

Halimah worked as a legal officer at the National Trades Union Congress, and became the director of its legal services department in 1992. She was appointed as a director of the Singapore Institute of Labour Studies (now known as the Ong Teng Cheong Institute of Labour Studies) in 1999. Halimah entered politics in 2001 when she was elected as an MP for the Jurong Group Representation Constituency (GRC). Following the 2011 general election, Halimah was appointed Minister of State at the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. Following a Cabinet reshuffle in November 2012, she became a Minister of State at the Ministry of Social and Family Development. She has also served as the Chair of Jurong Town Council. In January 2015, she was co-opted into the PAP's Central Executive Committee, the party's highest decision-making body.

At the 2015 general election, Halimah was the sole minority candidate for the People's Action Party group contesting the then-newly formed Marsiling-Yew Tee GRC. She has spoken out actively against Islamic extremism, in particular condemning and disassociating from the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. On 8 January 2013, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong nominated Halimah Yacob to succeed former Speaker Michael Palmer who resigned after he was revealed to have had an extramarital affair. She was elected Speaker of Parliament on 14 January 2013, the first woman to hold the post in Singapore's history and first one to be younger than PM. Because in history, all other past presidents are older than the PM. Halimah served at the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) as the Deputy Secretary General, Director of the Legal Services Department and Director of the Women's Development Secretariat. She also served as the Executive Secretary of the United Workers of Electronics and Electrical Industries.

Halimah was elected as the Workers' Vice-Chairperson of the Standards Committee of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva from 2000 to 2002 and in 2005. In 2003 and 2004, she was the Workers' Spokesperson for the ILC Committee on Human Resources Development and Training.

Halimah's journey

SUCCESS: 

In recognition of her contributions, she was conferred the Berita Harian Achiever of the Year Award in 2001, the "Her World Woman of the Year Award" in 2003, the AWARE Heroine Award 2011, and was inducted into the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations's Singapore Women's Hall of Fame in 2014.

Live in HDB flat for 30 years and still living in there even after she becomes Speaker of Singapore's Parliament.